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Welcome to the Lincoln Cent Forum Glossary.
Use the alphabetical links above to navigate to the desired term.

This glossary of terms was written and compiled by Will Brooks with the help of our forum members. A huge thanks to everyone who contributed knowledge, ideas, words, and photos to make this growing educational resource possible. Special thanks to Richard Cooper, aka “Coop” who donated many of the photos.

Hammer Die: The moving die which is opposite to the stationary (anvil) die. The hammer die moves toward and strikes a planchet resting on the anvil die. Up until the 1990s, the obverse die served as the hammer die, but then the mint began experimenting with using inverse die installation, employing the reverse die as the hammer die, and this has now become the predominent set-up used by the mint.

Hammer Job: See Garage Job.

Hardy Index System: A schematic method for identifying and classifying BIEs and other LIBERTY die breaks. It was developed by Howard O. Hardy for the BIE Oddity Collectors Guild. The index was first applied to over 1800 illustrations of Liberty die breaks drawn by John Gedko. In 1972, a publication called the “BIE Handbook” Edited by Howard O Hardy was released using the system. An explanation of the Hardy Index System can be found on page 21 of the BIE Handbook. Here is an example taken from the BIE Handbook for a 1999-S Lincoln cent.
1. 99S-4CL+7 The year of the coinage.
2. 99S-4CL+7 The mint of manufacture.
3. 99S-4CL+7 The die break locator ( 1L2I3B4E5R6T7Y8 ).
4. 99S-4CL+7 The delimitation letter.  (An indicator of the height/size of the die break)
5. 99S-4CL+7 The die break position letter. (An indicator of the left/right position between the 2 letters)
6. 99S-4CL+7 The extension indicator.
7. 99S-4CL+7 The variation serial number.

Thank you to forum member 2old for this entry.

Head(s): A slang word for the obverse of a coin. The next time someone flips a coin and tells you to call it in the air, say “obverse.”

Hole Filler: A very low grade coin, often one of an expensive key date, used to put in an empty slot in a coin album.

Hornet’s Nest: A colloquial term used to describe a large die chip or interior die break that forms at the top of the first bay of the memorial building on the reverse of Lincoln memorial cents which often resembles a hornet’s nest hanging from the roof. Image donated by copperlover.

Horizontal Mint Mark: In the Lincoln cent series there are a few issues of Lincoln cents that have had a re-punched mint mark, with one of the punchings being sideways into the die. Some generally accepted issues include a 1909S, a 1950D, and a 1961D. A 1955D with a supposed re-punched horizontal D has been de-listed by most attributor.

Hub: See Working Hub or Master Hub. Also, the action of transferring the design from a hub to a die.

Hub Doubling: Another term for doubled die.